On the 30th of October 2016, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico, and Canadian Prime...Show moreOn the 30th of October 2016, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA). In line with the EU’s external policy on the inclusion of social provisions in its bilateral and regional trade agreements, CETA contains a chapter entirely dedicated to the protection of labour standards in the context of trade relations, as a means of contributing to the overarching objective of ‘sustainable development’. The so-called ‘Trade and Labour’ Chapter includes detailed provisions on the protection and promotion of labour rights, as well as a special mechanism stipulated for the resolution of labour-related disputes. As regards the protection of labour standards, the European Commission has dubbed CETA as a ‘truly progressive’ agreement. Since both partners have experience in including labour provisions in their trade agreements, it could be assumed that the Agreement favours a revolutionary approach towards the trade and labour linkage, that could set a precedent for future trade agreements. This is the exact rationale of the Commission concerning the formulation and contents of the ‘Trade and Labour’ Chapter in CETA: according to the Commission not only have both Parties committed themselves never to undermine EU high labour standards ‘for the sake of commercial interests’, but instead to cooperate in encouraging ‘others around the world - particularly developing countries- to raise their own’. However, a closer examination of the labour provisions in CETA suggests that the Commission’s assertive stance on the preservation of high labour standards may well be unsubstantiated, which would in turn require the EU to revise its normative aspirations. The present thesis will therefore challenge the institutional expectations, arguing that the labour clause in CETA is defined by such crucial weaknesses that labour rights are rendered unenforceable.Show less
